en.wiktionary.org

refine - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From re- +‎ fine.

refine (third-person singular simple present refines, present participle refining, simple past and past participle refined)

(transitive) To purify; reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities.
to refine gold

to refine iron

to refine wine

to refine sugar
- 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
  The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.
(intransitive) To become pure; to be cleared of impure matter.
(transitive) To purify of coarseness, vulgarity, inelegance, etc.; to polish.
to refine someone's manners

to refine a language

a refined style

to refine one's tastes
(transitive, intransitive) To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
- 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume I, chapter 9:
  My dear Harriet, you must not refine too much upon this charade.—You will betray your feelings improperly, if you are too conscious and too quick, and appear to affix more meaning, or even quite all the meaning which may be affixed to it.
(transitive) To make nice or subtle.
to refine thought

to refine someone's language

to reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy

to purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or excellent; to polish

to become pure

to affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language

Translations to be checked

refine

refine